Tale of graft: Exec had gift of gab, cash
He courted N.J. politicians to get concrete contracts

Wednesday, January 24, 2001

By JEFF WHELAN AND ROBERT RUDOLPH
STAR-LEDGER STAFF

Jerry Free liked to live large.

A big man with a Tennessee drawl, a beet-red face and a shock of white hair, Free was a salesman by nature and trade. Indeed, those who know him say he may have been the world's most flamboyant seller of concrete.

He took limousines to political events. He hired beautiful, seductively clad women to staff the promotion booth for his firm, United Gunite, at municipal government conventions. Even the Christmas cards he sent to New Jersey public officials were works of showmanship - like the one last year that featured Free and his wife, Darlene, in front of the Eiffel Tower boasting they've "Gone GLOBAL." But most of all, there was the money. Free's deep pockets enabled him to befriend Democratic and Republican politicians throughout the state, attending their fund-raisers, buying them lunch, dinner and drinks.

"He was loud, he was full of himself and he was not short on words," said Elizabeth City Councilman A. Tony Monteiro, who clashed with Free over United Gunite's plans to move its headquarters to that city. "United Gunite was like the Microsoft of the sewer business. The way Free threw money around, you would think he was the Bill Gates of the industry."

This week the U.S. Attorney's Office in Newark disclosed that Free has admitted he routinely offered graft to officials in "various municipalities" in which his firm sought and obtained contracts.

Free, 61, the former vice president of marketing for Gunite, has pleaded guilty to buying off one Paterson official with expensive designer suits, dining room furniture, international trips and a custom-made swimming pool. According to government documents, Paterson may only be a piece of much larger picture.

Sources close to the investigation say municipal officials, ranging from mayors to midlevel bureaucrats, are being targeted by investigators for the FBI and U.S. Attorney's Office, who are following the trail of graft allegedly blazed by Free.

"There's a lot of people who have to worry," said one source familiar with the probe. "Where this guy went, that was his MO - that was the way he operated."

United Gunite Inc., a national concrete construction firm based in Irvington, did millions of dollars in work in cities such as Paterson, Camden and Elizabeth, where it repaired sewer systems, culverts and bridges, but it also did small jobs in smaller municipalities from Mendham to Monmouth Beach.

The company's product - gunite - is a concrete mixture sprayed under pressure over steel reinforcements. It has become indispensable in New Jersey, where many older cities suffer from crumbling infrastructure and deteriorating sewer systems.

Free's product may have been drab, but he was anything but. He worked for United Gunite as a consultant in its Nashville, Tenn., often making trips to New Jersey before transferring here in 1998. The former concert promoter brought his own brand of gusto to the job, using bells and whistles to peddle it to politicians throughout the state and reap millions of dollars worth of lucrative government contracts for United Gunite.

"Free was a very jovial and friendly kind of guy," said Donald Goncalves, who served as a Union County freeholder from 1997 to 1999. "You'd go out to have some drinks with him. He was a consummate networker."

He added: "Whenever there was public events, campaign fund-raisers, anybody that was elected knew the name Jerry Free."

Goncalves recalled Free would often have some of the most outrageous displays at the annual convention in Atlantic City for the state League of Municipalities, where vendors market their wares to municipal officials by day and socialize by night. He said Free hired attractive women who wore tight, skimpy outfits to operate a "Wheel of Fortune" type game to attract crowds to his booth.

"He was a trickster," Goncalves said. "He'd set up a whole big display to promote his company. You'd have pretty girls, it was like a carnival-type atmosphere."

Sources said much of the evidence Free has given investigators comes from secretly recorded conversations between Free and various public officials.

Those tapes show, the sources say, that Free tailored his payoffs to the sophistication of his beneficiaries. He could be smooth and elegant or just plain direct.

In the case of one official, a knowledgeable source said, Free had merely to offer his gifts and they would be snapped up.

"He (an unnamed official) was just a pig. He'd take anything you put in front of him," the source said.

Others, he said, were more circumspect, using straw men as fronts to suggest such things as political contributions.

Now, a source says, "the taping is over," and investigators in the U.S. Attorney's Office have set up a war room where they are sorting through bank records and other documents connected to Free's allegations of widespread payoffs.

Those who have crossed paths with Free say he is charming, but can also display a nasty temper.

In 1999, United Gunite began planning a relocation for its world headquarters to Elizabeth. The move had the backing of the city's mayor, J. Christian Bollwage, who has received $11,000 in campaign contributions from United Gunite and its employees since 1994. Bollwage declined to comment on Free or the $6.5 million in city contracts the company has been awarded since 1995.

Monteiro, a city councilman, said there was community opposition to having a construction outfit in the area. At a political fund-raiser, he met Free, and the two set up a meeting at the Liberty Baptist Church, attended by local ministers.

"I said, 'Listen, that might be a tough spot to put your headquarters,'" said Monteiro. He said Free reacted harshly.

"He was like a real bully," Monteiro said. "He started throwing out names of big politicians. He mentioned names upon names, but it didn't move the pastors one bit."

But the project was approved. The city granted United Gunite a 30-year tax abatement and a $1 million low- interest loan.

Hudson County Democratic political consultant Jack Shaw, who helped introduce Free around New Jersey's political circles, said he first met Free at a political function hosted by Sen. Raymond Lesniak, Union County's powerbroker. Lesniak said he knows Free but that the two never discussed business.

The picture Shaw paints of Free is one of a man who fancies himself an amateur magician, likes politics and works hard for his business.

"I see Jerry as a guy that's a very aggressive businessman. I just never thought he was someone that would go overboard," Shaw said. "He was always very gregarious and outgoing, and I know he at least had the appearance of having a considerable amount of money. He's a friendly, outgoing, entertaining person."

For Free, the convergence of business and politics was a good mixture.

"He loved going to political events, loved socializing and, as a result, made contacts that led to work," said Shaw.

Shaw said he recently had occasion to do some fund-raising with Free, and his friend's attitude is just the opposite of the type of thing that came out in court yesterday.

"Jerry Free . . . told us not to tie business contracts to contributions."

Though recent months brought publicity for Free stemming from the Paterson probe, Shaw said Free didn't appear to be weighed down by the investigation or news reports.

"I've talked to Jerry several times since then," Shaw said. "He really didn't say much about it at all. I just assumed it was nothing serious. I'd just assumed it was over with. Bad assumption, I guess."

Free lives on the 16th floor of The Excelsior, a luxury high-rise apartment building on Prospect Street in Hackensack that overlooks the Bergen County Courthouse and the Manhattan skyline. His wife, Darlene, said yesterday he wasn't home and that she didn't know where he could be reached.

Free has already implicated his own superiors at United Gunite in the alleged corruption, telling a federal judge they approved the payoffs he made. Top officials at Gunite have declined comment about the probe or their relationship with Free, who left the company last spring to start his own firm, Global Gunite.

One focus of the investigation, sources say, is Paterson Mayor Martin Barnes, whose attorney acknowledges that Free has been talking to federal authorities about his client, but denies that Barnes engaged in any wrongdoing.

Attorney Jack Arseneault said he believes Free was caught up in an unrelated federal probe and has been desperately trying to buy leniency by pointing his finger at others.

As a result of Free's cooperation, at least one other lower-echelon Paterson official is also believed to be under FBI scrutiny.

And in a separate phase of the investigation, U.S. authorities have subpoenaed records relating to United Gunite contracts in Essex County.

The subpoenas requested all documents and records relating to the selection and award of "no-bid" or "emergency" public works contracts worth $20,000 or more in which the administration can bypass the lengthy bid process.